What a difference a year can make!

Dowtish · Feb 28, 2012

p woodard said:
looks better now than when you had the meeting

Lots of changes since then. Broke down the tank once to move it and to plumb in the new sump, then another time to catch the remaining fish after the ich outbreak, 9 weeks fallow, and 4 weeks minimum of QTing all new fish....whew, it's wearing me out just typing it

dwilliams87 · Apr 17, 2012

Did all the corals start out as frags?

Dowtish · Apr 17, 2012

dwilliams87 said:
Did all the corals start out as frags?

All but 2 of them. The green birdsnest was a mini colony, and has almost tripled in size. And the sunset montipora was a fairly large piece as well. But all the rest were frags from people in the club.

andywe · Apr 17, 2012

Nice job Chris. My best and first piece of advice to any new hobbyist is that a reef tank is grown, and not set up. this is a testament to that and first hand proof.

pickupman66 · Apr 17, 2012

andywe said:
a reef tank is grown, and not set up.

Very true words. This summer will be two years on mine.. I just posted a years difference in photos of my tank. Its truly amazing. My last tank was setup for 10 years and you would swear it looked like 4 different systems.

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Dowtish · Apr 17, 2012

Thanks Andy. Just since this post my tank has gone through a lot of changes. Changes in pumps, lighting, and livestock, and I'm about to have to do some rearranging because of all the dang corals I bought at the swap!

It's been a busy few weeks for my system. All good things though.

andywe · Apr 18, 2012

Hehe..growth can appen in many ways...cheers!

dwilliams87 · Apr 20, 2012

I am fairly new to this and was wondering, by looking at your tank you had alot of growth on your corals. Do you know what a general growth rate is for SPS? Or say how many heads an acan will grow and a given time? I know there is alot of variance, but whatever you're doing is working. I'm just wondering if mine will grow about the same.

pickupman66 · Apr 20, 2012

Dwilliams, I cant answer the acans question as I just bought my first ones at the swap, but SPS growth rates can vary widely by coral and conditions. even the same colony will go thru variable growth rates in a tank. I had one coral that did nothing but enctust for over a year. then all of the sudden, BOOM it started growing about 1/2" a month to the branches. those split and before I knew it, It was HUGE. then you have some SPS that are just inherently slow growers and some that will always grow fast.

In addition, there are other water and light variables that can attribute to the growth of a coral.

Dowtish · Apr 20, 2012

I agree that this is something that can't have a definite answer. Lighting, water parameters, feeding and stability are all things that we know cause growth. But as pickupman said, some corals grow and spread faster than others. When it comes to acans, you will need to keep your alkalinity and calcium at the correct levels, but they also will grow faster by feeding them. Mysis and cyclopeze are good. As far as sps, I have seen the fastest growth in my birdsnest corals and Monti caps. Both of these are both considered easier sps corals, because they are not as demanding as acros. There will times where you can literally see the growth by the day. And another good way to gauge growth is to take pics and and date them, or videos. As far as softies like mushrooms and zoas, they can be incredibly fast growers, but this is usually when the water has a little more nutrients in it. That is why I think my zoas have Been slow growers, because of the use of bi-pellets, and the lack of nitrates and phosphate.

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